Thursday, August 28, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

What better place for an uplifting experience than Mile High?

The Democratic National Convention in Denver switches venues tonight from the Pepsi Center to INVESCO Field at Mile High Stadium for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance of his party’s presidential nomination. What tone should he strike? Dr. Robb McDaniel, political science, says, “Obama needs to ignore all the nervous Nellies in the commentariat who want him to fundamentally alter his style in one way or another—more populist, more technocratic, etc. Compared to where Bill Clinton was at this point in 1992 or where Ronald Reagan was in 1980, Obama’s doing well. And he needs to stick with what got him where he is—the Obama uplift. Barack Obama is the most brilliant orator of his generation, and his rousing, optimistic style is perfectly fit for a convention speech, as he showed in 2004.”

Contact McDaniel at 615-904-8245.
rmcdanie@mtsu.edu

A year later

Preliminary figures show the number of manufacturing jobs in the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro area was down more than six-and-a-half percent in July 2008 over the previous July. The overall unemployment rate in July was 3.8 percent. Last month, it was 5.8 percent. Total nonfarm employment went up only .63 percent from July to July. Air travel at Nashville International Airport was down to 883,566 passengers in July 2008 compared to 928,059 a year earlier.

Contact the Business and Economic Research Center at 615-898-2610.

Listening in

MTSU Audio Clips is a service for radio stations to supplement their news and information programs with sound and radio-ready stories that broadcasters can access on the Internet and download at their convenience. The latest collection of audio stories includes perspectives on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing from Dr. Andrew Owusu, associate professor of health and human performance and a three-time Olympian; two MTSU students who helped found a new chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the political activist group best known for its opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s; and a commentary by Dr. Larry Burriss, journalism professor and First Amendment expert, on the expansion of governmental secrecy.

You can access MTSU Audio Clips by going to www.mtsunews.com, your online location for MTSU information, and clicking on “MTSU Audio Clips” on the right side of the page. Contact Gina Logue at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu with questions or comments.

TR EXTRA

A LONG AND SUCCESSFUL RUN--MTSU track and field coach Dean Hayes will be inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) Hall of Fame on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at the USTFCCA convention in Phoenix, Ariz. Hayes, who has been at MTSU since 1965, has led the Blue Raiders to 29 Ohio Valley Conference titles, 14 Sun Belt championships, and 18 NCAA Top 25 finishes. He has been named OVC Coach of the Year 15 times and Sun Belt Coach of the Year 12 times, including a run of 10 straight titles from 1977 to 1986. His fellow coaches voted him NCAA Outdoor Coach of the Year in 1981. In addition to coaching at the World University Games and other international events, Hayes worked as an assistant at the Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988 and a referee at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Contact MTSU Athletic Communications at 615-898-2968.

CLAP FOR THE WOLFEMAN--The late Dr. Charles K. Wolfe, professor emeritus of English at MTSU and cultural historian, will be inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame at an Oct. 2 ceremony at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Wolfe, who passed away in 2006, was a respected scholar of both country music and bluegrass and the author of more than a dozen books, including The Music of Bill Monroe, co-authored with Neil Rosenberg and published in 2007. Wolfe also was one of the faculty members who came up with the idea for a Center for Popular Music at MTSU. Paul Wells, director of the center, says of Wolfe’s induction, “It’s a well-deserved honor. Charles really made some great contributions to the history and literature of bluegrass music. … He wrote about what he loved, and he loved what he wrote about.” Contact Wells at 615-898-2449 or pwells@mtsu.edu.

A RAD-ICAL IDEA--A series of six Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes will be offered at no charge from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. every Thursday beginning Sept. 4 through Oct. 9 in the MTSU Public Safety training room, 1412 East Main Street in Murfreesboro. The class will be open to all female MTSU students, faculty and staff, as well as to the general public. A workbook/training manual will be provided to each student. RAD is a comprehensive course for women that begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance and progresses to the basics of hands-on defense training. RAD is the largest women’s self-defense system in the United States. Enrollment is limited. Contact Officer David Smith at 615-898-2424.

“I’LL BE THE ROUNDABOUT/THE WORDS WILL MAKE YOU OUT AND OUT”—JON ANDERSON AND STEVE HOWE--A new traffic roundabout at the intersection of MTSU Boulevard and Blue Raider Drive allows motorists from each direction to loop around to continue on their desired route after yielding to any vehicles already in the loop. The change is part of the four-phase $80 million traffic master-plan construction project designed to improve traffic flow, safety and access around campus. MTSU’s roundabout is the first of its kind at a Tennessee public university, and it is accentuated by pieces of limestone columns that originated at the old Tennessee State Capitol. Contact Ron Malone, assistant vice president for events and transportation services, at 615-898-5002 or rrmalone@mtsu.edu.

TARNISHED MEDALS?--The United States track and field team collected 23 medals, including seven golds, at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. However, the high-profile failures, including the dropping of the batons by the men’s and women’s 4-by-100 meter relay squads, prompted television commentators to call the track and field team’s performance a “failure of leadership.” Dr. Andrew Owusu, assistant professor of health and human performance and a three-time Olympic athlete, says, while it’s not unusual to hear that, “There’s only so much the coaches or the technical stuff can do because once the athletes get out there, everything rests on how they perform. … At some point, the athletes have to bear some responsibility for their performance, but I am sure there will be some changes at the top.” Owusu will discuss the Olympics at 7 a.m. this Sunday, Aug. 31, on “MTSU on the Record” hosted by Gina Logue on WMOT-FM (89.5 and wmot.org). Contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.